UNH and the 2010 Census

College students-- think that you are covered under your parents’ 2010 Census form? Think again.

“It’s in our hands.” This is the motto of the Census Bureau’s campaign. The 2010 Census is well underway. Despite being of seemingly national interest, the census directly affects college students and particularly the University of New Hampshire community.

The results of the census determine the amount of federal funding that the university receives and the representation that the state of New Hampshire has in the in the United States House of Representatives.

According to the UNH Office of Media Relations, Census data affect college tuition grant and loan programs, and help to inform decisions about funding for critical services in the academic community, such as transportation, public safety, medical care, and road repairs. Additionally, census data “inform and support important research done by college faculty, students, librarians, and community leaders.”

The office has made extensive efforts to get the word out about the importance of completing a census form and have been working on a Census on Campus awareness campaign. The office states the goals of the campaign on their website.

“UNH wants to help educate students, staff, faculty and parents about the importance of completing the 2010 Census, and tell them how and where to fill it out.”

Additionally, Media Relations has expressed concern that many do not know that students are not covered under their parents’ census forms.

“Usually, parents and students are unaware of this procedure.”

“I had no idea. I was under the impression that students would be accounted for through the census that their parents’ received,” said undergraduate student Peter Kispert.

Many other students were unaware that they needed to fill out a Census.

“No way. We’re not covered under our parents’? I had no idea,” said freshman UNH student Diana Clayburgh.

“I think it’s definitely important to fill it out though,” added her friend, fellow freshman Kayla Cruishank.

Robert M. Groves, director of the Census Bureau, wrote on his blog that, “The 2010 Census wants college kids to get counted where they usually live, and this means for them to be counted in college dormitories and off-campus housing.”

Ken Johnson, professor of sociology at UNH, and a nationally recognized expert on demographic trends in America, recognizes the challenges that college students pose to the census.

“College students are among the hardest of all groups to count,” he said. “It is imperative that all students and other members of the UNH community fill out and return their questionnaires. More than $400 billion dollars will be distributed based on the results.”
Census questionnaires will be delivered to on-campus housing in April and May 2010. The census contains only ten questions, the fewest in decades, and is estimated to take only 10 minutes to fill out.

The U.S. Census has been taken each decade since 1790 and is the longest continuously conducted Census in the world. The concept of a nationally conducted census was adopted by our Founding Fathers and is enumerated in the United States Constitution.

Article I, Section II states, “[An] Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”

“To understand how America is changing, we need to know what America looks like, where people reside and how many people there are. The Census will tell us all these things,” said Johnson. He added,

“The Census is one of the building blocks of America's democracy. Generations are counting on your to answer the Census.”